Roger's Chance:

By: Chris

After a rather crazy past few days at the French open, in which we have seen Tennis' top stars including Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, even the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal leave after early round exits, the road is wide open for Roger Federer. Coming off of a clay court title in Madrid, against Nadal, Federer finally ended his title drought on a surface he is yet to conquer at a Grand Slam event. He looks poised to finally overcome the final Grand Slam obstacle lying in his career path. 

The Parisian venue has been Federer's Kryptonite; the past three years he has consecutively made it to the finals, however has never been able to finish it off. Usually standing in his way was his tormentor, Rafael Nadal. Now that him, and other top seeds, are eliminated, Federer looks like a heavy favorite heading into the final weekend.

It was not all cherry pickings for Federer, though. A few days ago against the German, Tommy Haas, Roger came back down two sets to pull through. His latest match versus Monfils, albeit a win in straight sets, still tested Federer. Even he admits, “We’re all nervous at this stage of the competition. I felt it. Yesterday I felt it, and I felt it again [yesterday] before the match. I was tired, I was nervous, and I didn’t feel really good." The pressure is mounting on Federer, who longs for this Grand Slam title especially, as it would give him the magic total of 13, tying Pete Sampras for most all-time. At the age of 27, Federer does not look like he will be stopping anytime soon either, perhaps not as late as Andre Agassi (late 30s), but still he is expected to play a few more years .

Federer plays his semi-final match on Friday, against Juan Martin del Potro (5th seed) by far the highest remaining seed. The other semi-final features young-gun Swede Robin Soderling, who handed Nadal the shocking defeat, and Fernando Gonzalez (12th seed). Look for Federer to take Del Potro relatively easily, and then in the Finals, hopefully come through to win, finally, his first French Open Grand Slam and tie Pete Sampras for Most-All time.